Standing at the base of “The Hole,” a gargantuan rock formation in West Virginia’s New River Gorge, you can hear water coming down the mountainside, rushing to the river below. Looking up, you’d see the rock shooting hundreds of feet overhead, curving as it goes, to form an imposing-looking overhang. […]
Read MoreTag: Culture
The Elk, the Tourists and the Missing Coal Country Jobs
A proposed wildlife center got a $12 million federal grant after promising to bring millions of dollars and thousands of tourists to eastern Kentucky. Four years later, residents are still waiting for the jobs they were promised. Standing at the site of a long-abandoned, multimillion dollar industrial park in November […]
Read MoreAppalachian Youth Poetry: umbilical theory
As part of the Appalachian Youth Creators Project, we’re committed not just to young people telling their own stories, but doing so through the mediums that feel most honest and relevant to them. So much of this powerful storytelling comes not just through the voices of young people, but the […]
Read MoreBillions in COVID Relief Has Gone to Farmers. Just Not Black or Family-Owned Farms in Appalachia.
Aster. Nasturtium. Delphinium. We thought Fingers in dirt meant it was our dirt, learning Names in heat, in elements classical Philosophers said could change us. Star Gazer. Foxglove. Summer seemed to bloom against the will Of the sun, which news reports claimed flamed hotter On this planet than when our […]
Read More‘Even As We Breathe’ Explores Race, Class Intersections Through Eyes of Cherokee Man in Appalachian N.C.
In the early 1940s, as the country was engaged overseas in World War II, Axis diplomats were rounded up here at home and held under the watchful eye of U.S. soldiers, not in prison camps, but often in resorts, like the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. The Inn […]
Read MoreGenerational Love for Little Green Apple Keeps Heirloom From Disappearing
Known for its distinct sour taste when it first ripens, and its creamy applesauce when it matures, an heirloom apple with Russian roots still grows in Appalachia. Generations of southwest Virginians and West Virginians have kept these trees alive for more than a century. The growing season, flavor and versatility […]
Read More